Most experts believe that a content marketing strategy should be a big portion of a B2B business’ marketing efforts. In today’s competitive digital landscape, your brand will be drowned out by millions of gigabytes worth of information if you fail to reach your customer. With content marketing, your business will be able to stand out. Content marketing can help you achieve your business goals by attracting, engaging, and delighting your target market with quality content that adds value to your audience, and in turn your brand. The goal is to get the right information into the hands of your prospects when it is most relevant to them.
 
Content marketing is significantly cheaper than traditional marketing, but it can generate as much as three times the number of leads. Since there is a steady rise of people purchasing online, content can also have a major influence on people’s purchasing decisions.
 
Here are the top reasons why your company should include content marketing in your marketing strategy.

 

Prospects Are Tired of Being Sold To

 
Buyers and decision makers are becoming more savvy and discerning when it comes to purchasing goods and services. With so much data easily accessible with just a few clicks, they can easily compare competing companies to make better informed decisions for their business. Traditional sales tactics of pushing products to customers are becoming less effective because people are less receptive to hard selling.
 
Research shows that around 80% of customers prefer to be educated about a product rather than be influenced by flashy advertising campaigns. In fact, millions of internet users use ad blockers and treat blatant ads as a nuisance to their online experience. Content marketing is an effective way marketers can avoid these pitfalls and still have their message heard.
 

Fosters Better Brand Recall

 
By creating quality content that offers value and resonates with your target market, you build an awareness of your brand. In some instances, a potential client might have a problem, but is not aware that a solution exists. Content marketing can educate consumers that the product or service you are offering can resolve it for them.
 
Companies that produce high-quality content have the advantage of capturing the attention of their audiences. If readers spend a significant amount of time on your website reading your content, there is a higher likelihood that they will remember your brand.
 

Showcases Your Expertise and Builds Credibility

 
Content marketing helps you earn credibility by demonstrating how well you understand your audience. When you tackle topics pertaining to your customers’ challenges, you are helping them better understand what steps they need to take to solve their problems. And that puts you in the position of a thought leader and a reputable source of information. This is advantageous because it can continuously draw a following to your website. The key is to keep the content authentic and the interactions as personal as possible: according to a Demand Metric Report in 2014, “82% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content.”
 

Helps in Your SEO Efforts

 
Working your way around the Google algorithm can be quite tricky, but we can all agree that it requires a certain understanding of your prospects’ motivations and mindset. You must be able to predict how they are likely to look for information online and what keywords they are likely to search with. Write your content using these keywords as a guide so that you can show up on the search engine result page. Be careful though: search engines penalize sites that publish ‘spammy’ content, such as blogs that don’t provide any value but are merely written with tons of search keywords to rank higher. There is no shortcut to ranking high on Google: only great content written specifically for your audience can get you there.
 

Delivers Higher Conversion Rates

 
If your brand continues to be perceived as a trustworthy source of information, it can bring more traffic to your website. But the best part is it can also positively affect your conversion rates. Aberdeen conducted a study and concluded that companies that prioritized content marketing saw their website conversion rates increase 5x.
 

Establishes a Loyal Following

 
Content marketing doesn’t stop at the point of sale. You want to keep customers engaged post-purchase. Developing content specifically for this segment will bring your company back to mind when they are ready to repurchase. Focusing on customer retention increases your profitability 7 times while costing a lot less than acquiring new customers. Content marketing can help demonstrate to your customer how important it is for you to build a relationship with them. It improves customer satisfaction and loyalty, plus you will gain brand ambassadors willing to evangelize your brand.
 
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